Abstract: A vehicular adapter system is described having wireless local area network (WLAN) capabilities. The adapter system includes an adapter configured to plug into a cigarette lighter socket of a vehicle. The adapter has a WLAN module contained therein, and is configured to electrically couple the WLAN module to a wireless communication device. The WLAN module is operable to communicate with other WLAN-enabled devices in the vehicle, such as a head unit with another embedded WLAN module. The interoperability of the WLAN modules provide hands-free audio operation of a radiotelephone that is not WLAN-enabled using existing vehicular audio transducers.

Abstract: A method of collecting a plurality of hazardous road condition data points (248, 348) includes providing a sensor (108) coupled to a vehicle (102), where the sensor functions to detect a hazardous road condition (110) in real-time. The hazardous road condition is recorded along with a location (250) associated with the hazardous road condition, where the road hazard and the location define a hazardous road condition data point (248, 348). The hazardous road condition data point (248, 348) is wirelessly transmitted to a road hazard database system (106), with the road hazard database system receiving a plurality hazardous road condition data points. The road hazard database system (106) then sorts and maps the plurality of hazardous road condition data points based on their corresponding location.